No less than 75 tons of depleted uranium found in Gaza soil and subsoil after Israel attacks
May 24, 2009
GAZA — “Citizens Action to Dismantle Nuclear Weapons Completely” has prepared a 33 page report showing the presence of tens of tons of depleted uranium in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli attacks of late December and January are the culprit, reports the international organization.
“The quantity of depleted uranium may amount to no less than 75 tons found in the soil and subsoil in the Gaza Strip,” is the study’s quote.
As many have suggested, the Israeli military used or may have used depleted uranium in the ground and air assaults on the Strip during the operation in the period between 27 December 2008 and January 18, 2009.
The report indicated that Norwegian Dr. Mads Gilbert, during the first few days of participation in voluntary humanitarian work at Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital, condemned the presence of radioactive material that may have been depleted uranium in the bodies of the victims.
And now the accusation emerged more strongly after several months of investigations carried out in close association with the peoples concerned, and with the assistance of international expert on sustainable development and use of prohibited weapons Jean – Francois Feacheno.
The international mission itself was composed of four members, including expert Feacheno, adviser to the reduction of pollution, and experts accredited to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). They travelled to the Gaza Strip in April 2009 under the auspices of the Arab Committee for Human Rights.
The specialist laboratory used analysis of soil and dust samples from their mission to the Gaza Strip and found the elements of depleted uranium, a radioactive material, causing cancer and deformities.
The analysis also showed the presence of particles of the cesium, a radioactive and carcinogenic dust which includes asbestos, a carcinogenic, in addition to volatile organic compounds and fine particles that pose health risks, especially children’s health, those living with asthma and the elderly.
Also found in the samples was phosphate resulting from the oxidation of white phosphorus and tungsten material carcinogens, in addition to copper and aluminum oxide, a carcinogenic and radioactive thorium oxide material.
Source / Palestine News Network
Thanks to Jeffrey Segal / The Rag Blog
This false claim of tens of tons (another variant says no less than 75 tons) of DU in Gaza is totally bogus. How, would anyone be able to make such a determination, especially when DU was not used in Gaza. There is no such thing as DU in a bomb and Hamas had no tanks – not only that, Israeli tanks probably do not carry DU penetrator rounds. I wonder if the emphasis on DU, which certainly gets the rabbled rousers on the net’s blood to boil, is because Hamas’s firing of rockets at civilians really was a war crime. As a result, they have to concoct phony stories starting with that of Mads Gilbert, the Palestinian propagandist who occasionally also practices medicine, but who surely has forgotten his Hippocratic Oath. Since Gilbert’s early claim was quickly replaced with his fellow Norwegian doctor Palestinian propagandist’s claim about untreatable wounds, I do wonder why the French anti-nuclear types now claim to have made some sort of actual laboratory analysis. The thing that is odd, is that there are all of these claims, but no one gets to read the supposed 33 page report that reveals all for themselves. I suspect that is because it will not withstand the harsh light of day. The UN Environment Programme investigated similar claims in Lebanon in 2006. The 2007 report of the intensive international scientific examination and laboratory testing of 32 sites where DU was claimed to have been found can be read here http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/UNEP_Lebanon.pdf . Anyone who reads it will find that UNEP did not find a trace of depleted uranium or even of uranium metal. I do encourage all to read it for themselves. There are several pages about this hunt for DU in Lebanon that found nothing.
Roger
DUStory-owner@yahoogroups.com